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With a month to go before the 28 July presidential elections in Mali,
UNHCR is strengthening its role in helping neighbouring countries deal
with out-of-country voting for Malian refugees.

Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania together host 175,000 Malian refugees from the recent conflict there. Refugees eligible to vote in exile are people already registered in the Malian
Administrative Civil Status Census.

UNHCR is supporting the
participation of refugees in these elections, although our role is
limited to a strictly humanitarian and non-political one. UNHCR is
providing refugees with practical information on their right to
participate in the elections and UNHCR is also providing some
transportation.

In Burkina Faso, UNHCR has
undertaken awareness campaigns in all refugee camps (Goudoubo, Mentao
and Sag-nioniogo), as well as spontaneous refugee sites (Dibissi, Tin
Hedja, Deou and Gountouré Gnégné) and in urban settings with
concentration of refugees (Bobo-Dioulasso, Ouagadougo and Ouahigouya).

Voting
will be on a voluntary basis and refugees are being informed
accordingly. Personal information and data held by UNHCR is not being
shared with the Malian government. UNHCR is advising on steps to take if
people would come under pressure from any person or party involved in
the election.

Between last Tuesday 25 June, and today, ten Malian
teams deployed by the Malian Embassy have started registering refugees
for the vote. They are receiving support from UNHCR with logistics,
transportation, and translation. Of 49,945 refugees in camps and
spontaneous sites, 18,409 are of voting age (age 18 and above). The
registration process is being monitored by Burkina Faso’s national
refugee commission CONAREF (Commission nationale pour les refugies).
Participation of refugees in registration was low at first but has since
picked up. Registration figures should be available in the coming days.
The names of those who registered will be transmitted to the Bamako
authorities so that their electoral cards can be sent to Burkina Faso
and then distributed to the refugees.

Similar arrangements are in place in Niger and Mauritania.

In Niger,
which is hosting some 50,000 Malian refugees, teams from the Malian
Consulate have registered voters in the Mangaize and Tabareybarey camps.
The exercise is continuing in the Abala camp, as well as in the Intekan
and Tassalit refugee hosting areas (in the Tahoua region), with UNHCR
logistics support.

In Mauritania, which hosts
75,000 Malian refugees in Mbera camp, preparations for the registration
of Malian voters are on-going. Consultations between the Mauritanian
authorities, the Malian embassy in Nouakchott and UNHCR are continuing.
UNHCR is providing logistics support.

UNHCR has previously
facilitated out-of-country voting by refugees in South Sudan in 2011, in
Iraq in 2010 and in Afghanistan in 2004.